Ongo: Washington Post, NY Times, and Gannett’s New Service

January 26, 2011

3:13 pm

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The Washington Post, New York Times, and Gannett have launched a subscription-based online news service called Ongo. The personal news service based in Cupertino, Calif. was launched with $12 million in funding from the big three news publishers.

Ongo will feature full news coverage from The Washington Post, USA Today and the Associated Press; select stories from the New York Times and Financial Times will also be available. The cost is $6.99 per month, though subscribers can add stories from other papers, such as the Detroit Free Press, Boston Globe, Slate, and Miami Herald, for an addition $.99 per month.

The best part: No intrusive, distracting ads that clutter the page.

Or maybe this is the best part: You can customize the news you care about in a single format that you can read on your desktop, iPad, or any web-enabled device.

The big question remains. Is Ongo the future of newspapers, or just another desperate attempt to save news publishing? What do you think?